Every single time a company rolls out a host of AI features, we’ve all been conditioned to expect them to come at a price. No matter who it is and how it’s done, companies always charge for them.
Apple Intelligence is raising those same doubts, and indeed, analysts are suggesting that the Cupertino crew could charge up to $20 for these features. But fortunately, these prices won’t occur right out of the gate, as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims it will “take three years” for Apple to create an AI service that is worth the money.
2027th heaven
In what Gurman says “may be the best-case scenario,” Apple’s long-term plan is to develop a premium AI tier with additional features that would incur a monthly cost — similar to the way you pay for upgraded iCloud options.
2027 does seem like a long way away, so why the hold out? Well, put simply, there’s a few key steps between now and then that will be taking up the company’s time. First, Apple Intelligence needs to be in more countries for a subscription to make sense — you can’t do this while holding out on your two other biggest audiences in China and Europe.
And second, you need some features that are actually worth the money. Don’t get me wrong, Writing Tools, an improved Siri, Image Playground and more are indeed fun to use, but charging for them would leave a sour taste in iPhone users’ mouths. We think Apple wouldn’t want to put a price on anything until its next gen features come out on the company’s own AI cloud, which we know teams are busy building at the moment.
Pay up for AI+
In terms of how Apple will come calling for the money, there are two key ways it could do so:
- Create a separate subscription service for Apple Intelligence+
- Loop it into Apple One and offer a tier at a higher price with AI
Chances are the company will offer both options above, but start to heavily sell you on going the whole hog and picking A1 (just like the upselling I fell for on my iPhone to go for the basic plan).
One thing’s for sure though, Apple is definitely looking at Intelligence as another way to increase monthly subscription income, but only when there’s a product to sell.
